TI Day

Yesterday Michael and I went to Lyngby so he could go to work and I could see the new office. When we were here last time the TI office was closer to Copenhagen in a run down part of town. The new office is so much lovelier. Its all modern and Euro chic. Michael even has an electric desk that changes heights with the click of a button. If he feels like working while standing, his desk will come to standing level. Its pretty cool. The guys at the Copenhagen office have always been great to not only Michael but me as well and it was nice to see them all again. Michael stayed at work and I wondered around Lyngby...

Random Lyngby Pictures

and came back to Copenhagen where I ate lunch outside while I people watched, then got a cup of coffee at a cafe and drank that outside, also while I people watched. It was nice and relaxing. About the time I was done with that I headed back to the hotel slowly with of couse stopping in some of our old favorite shops :) Then I headed back to Lyngby where I met Michael and went back to TI to catch a cab with some of the guys from there. We went with 4 of them (including Klaus) to a really cute and really good resturant for dinner. (http://www.aok.dk/infosites/7846/3.html ) We had a good time.

This morning after breakfast we headed to the Immigration office with a representative from a relocation service to get our Residents/Work Permits and VISAS all in order and appied for. We are all too familiar with the Immigration office here as we have spent a fair amount of time in it but it was nice to see that it has been renovated since we were last there close to 4 years ago. It was much more pleasant this time around. We got that stuff all set up and started and we should have our permits by the time we get back here. After we got done we came back to the hotel and went out for a bite to eat at one of our favorite little places from when we lived here. We quickly realized our tastes have changed a ton in the past 3 years and we weren't so impressed with it as we use to be. Oh well, I suppose that is expected.

The Town Hall from our Window, just to add another picture.

Vi er Her!

It means, "We are here!" We got in yesterday at about 12:30 and managed to keep ourselves awake until 10. It seems that the more traveling we do the easier it becomes to push through that first day of jetlag to try to get our bodys adjusted to the time. I'm not saying by 10PM our brains were mush, but we managed.

Our flights were good. Our flight to Zurich was 10 hours and neither of us got much sleep, but managed to get a little. They served us breakfast RIGHT before we touched down so we shoveled it in our mouths and they came running back through the cabin to steal it all back from everyone...They told us they didn't realize how close they were to landing when they served it They stole everyone's coffee back too and pretty much, as soon as they did, we were on the ground. We slept the entire second flight from Zurich to Copenhagen.

We got to Copenhagen, got our stuff and made it to our hotel where we washed up and headed out for a walk down Stroget(Which if you don't remember, is a pedestrian shopping street and the longest one in the world at that) and found a new coffee shop that has potential to become a new favorite.

Doesn't the coffee just LOOK like it tastes better here?? Its because it does ;)
yummm Velvety Smooth Rich Coffee..

Then it was onward down Stroget to Nyhavn. Which was dead quiet, but just as lovely as I remember.

One of the little colorful buildings on Nyhavn

We went towards the outskirts to meet up with Klaus and to see his new flat. His flat is in a really great place and really cute at that. We ate, and headed back to Klaus's for some beer and ice cream and then came back here and crashed.

Our hotel is great. Actually a very popular hotel in Copenhagen. It is the Royal SAS Radisson. The entire hotel is so completely Scandinavian. Unlike the Hilton in Tokyo this one is FULL of Character. This hotel itself has always been proud of the fact that it was designed entirely by the well respected Danish architect, Arne Jacobsen. (He is the man who designed the egg chair) We have an AMAZING view and can see SO much from up here (we are on the 15th floor) I've seen Copenhagen a hundred times from the ground and being up here, and knowing what I'm looking at is really awesome. I would be ok, just sitting here and looking out for the rest of the trip because I've never seen Copenhagen from this perspective. I can even see Sweden from up here.

Our Room. The shapes on the wall are the room lights.

Comfy and VERY typical Danish Chairs

The bathroom, which has a heated floor which is also very common here

View from our window.
Today (which is much more clear then yesterday)I can see the sea, the bridge to Sweden, and the new fancy windmills The tall tower is Copenhagen's Town Square and the Park looking thing in the middle with the cool entrance is the amusement park called Tivoli that opened in the year... 1843!!!!!

View from our room at night. This is the Central Copenhagen Train station

So far my impression of being back in Denmark is strange. I don't feel like we are out of the country the slightest bit, which is peculiar, because we are quite far. Is it because this was home for so long, therefore taking away its "foreign-ness"? While things have changed here in the past 3 years (as things tend to do) it is still so incredibly familiar, even the people seem familiar. Part of me is starting to feel like we never left, another part of me feels like we have been gone forever.

OOPS

What I meant to say yesterday that,
when we arrive on Monday the sunRISE is at 7:56 AM and the sun set is at 5:51 PM
On Sunday Saturday when we leave the sunRISE is at 8:08 AM and the sunset is at 5:39PM

Not sure who corrected me since it was posted as anonymous, but I have some guesses as to who it was....

Last night Chris an Fayne invited us over for dinner. I had a private lesson and went with them to their Tai Chi class in Garland and Michael came over after work. Fayne cooked chili (Which she said she messed up, but was still really good!) and made some salsa that was wonderful as well. They have 4 cats, 3 sons, 2 snakes, and a partridge in a pear tree...The cats didn't bother our allergies at all yesterday and that was pleasant.

We leave tomorrow afternoon for Denmark but haven't started packing yet. Chris and Fayne said we were probably so use to being on the move that packing is probably pretty quick for us, and it is. I can't think of many people who would be leaving the country for a week in about 24 hours that wouldn't be freaking out about not even starting to pack yet. I'm looking forward to wearing my warm clothes next week. Its been too long since it was really really cold out. We are both anxious to get back to Copenhagen for a week. We have slowly started to forget what it was exactly that we loved over there so much. I'm sure it won't take long to remember. We will have our laptops so I should be posting here while we are away.

Get a Rheumatologist

Yesterday was the last day that Chris and I worked the Arthritis Foundation Booth at the State Fair and the biggest thing I learned today was that if you have Arthritis, a great first step is to work with a rheumatologist. Apparently, and I didn't know this till a few weeks ago, there are over 100 different types of Arthritis. My understanding is that one of the most important reasons to work with a rheumatologist is to determine the exact type the person has, and to be able to know the best next step to take to help learn to live with the Arthritis. I know I need both my hands to count how many people that read this blog that have some form of Arthritis, so thought I'd mention this and for those of you that don't if one day in the future, Arthritis appears in your body, maybe you too will remember the importance of a rheumatologist! (And the benefits of Tai Chi for Arthritis as well...sorry had to throw that in there ;o) )

We are starting to get ready to head out on Sunday. We are flying though Zurich and arrive in Copenhagen at noon on Monday. It is going to be quite chilly. The high the entire week we are there looks like it is going to be 59 degrees and the low is 46 degrees. (Have it be known, despite the temp. I will be eating the ice cream that I have been craving for 3 years) It also looks like it will be raining the whole week as well. This is the part that I think is fascinating.
When we arrive on Monday the sunset is at 7:56 AM and the sun set is at 5:51 PM
On Sunday Saturday when we leave the sunset is at 8:08 AM and the sunset is at 5:39PM
Thats a huge difference!! I remember while we were living there you could very easily tell that each day got significantly less sunlight.

Oh, we got our car all sold too. We ended up not taking it to CarMax after all, but we found it a great home for it Monday night. Same home we trusted Hendrix to when we left the first time. :o) We get to keep it until November 11th until Tanya and Wayne come down here to pick it up., but we already have the money for it and today, I'm going to pay it off and that is going to be a GREAT feeling.

Lovin' Lubbock

What a nice long weekend we had... We left Dallas Thursday night to head home to the hub city. Upon getting our rental car and pulling out onto I-27 our lives instantly slowed down. It's amazing how much slower life moves in Lubbock. It was refreshing and something we desperately needed. Of course, as we drove past downtown and the fairgounds we got the lovely welcome home smell... "Nothing says home, like the no so subtle hint of feedlots drifting through the air"

We didn't get in till kinda late so we just headed to Nana's caught up for a short time and called it a night.

Friday we met GMA and GPA (Michaels grandparents) at our favorite place to meet them... you guessed it, Market Street (a grocery store) We were there a good 2 hours or more, eating and catching up. We always forget how much we really miss Market Street. There are a couple in the DFW area, but they aren't the same. The friendliness just isn't the same. Then it was onto Texas Tech to do a few things up there and in the evening Michaels mom came to town so we got to just hang out at nana's house with her and Michaels uncle David.

Saturday was the whole reason we booked our trip to Lubbock in the first place. "GRAPE DAY!"
There is a wonderful little winery just down the road from Michaels family farm and we love going to their wine festivals, we had been jonesing to go home to Lubbock anyways, and when we got the email about "Grape Day" we decided that would be the perfect weekend to head down. Michaels mom, uncle and nana came with us and we spent several hours out there. The weather was PERFECT. Overcast, misty, cool... the exact weather we think of when we recall Lubbock in the fall. We drank wine, ate bbq, listened to some great live music, looked at old cars, and just enjoyed ourselves. Afterwards, Michael and I made a brief stop at the farm to fix a computer and then it was up to Plainview to take care of the second reason we wanted to come to Lubbock so badly...To finally meet baby Hagen. (Michaels cousins 5 month old lil boy) He is a CUTIE and such a good baby!! and so snuggly and had a very distinctive "Pate Forehead" There were several people (I wont mention names) that had told us that they were hoping cute baby Hagen would give at least one of us baby fever... When he didn't, we had one person tell us, well, you know, not everyone is meant to have kids! haha. While I wouldn't mind taking Hagen home for a few days, I like knowing I can give him back when I'm done with him. We visited for a while and they cooked out for dinner and we had a great time.


Push Play and you can see how cute he is for yourself!!!



Sunday was "Early Thanksgiving". So we got Turkey and dressing and all the yummy things that come with Thanksgiving, including the family. We spent the day just enjoying the company.

Monday we pretty much just got ready to go We ate lunch with Nana and David at one of Lubbocks best local restaurants, "Stellas" , said goodbye to them and went back out to the farm for a couple hours before heading to the airport. So we got more goodbyes done with, though they weren't too hard. We will see Michaels mom again in November here in Dallas, and Nana will be coming to Denmark once the summer rolls around to stay for some time.

Jumping away to Lubbock for a few days was just what we needed. We have unpacked and I'm doing laundry and we will start packing again here pretty quick. We are heading to Denmark for a week on Sunday for a house hunting trip. We are excited. Michael was there last year for a conference but I haven't been back since we moved and I'm honestly starting to forget what it was that we loved so much over there so I am anxious to be reminded. We are staying at a hotel in the heart of Copenhagen which will be perfect!!!

I Love Gifts from Foreign Countries

Three people go out to the parking lot, two come back with a bag of dried leaves.
Don't freak out, it was just green tea !! Yesterday one of our pals from the gym who's mother is from Japan brought us a bag of Japanese Green Tea. His mom had gone to Japan for a couple weeks and he had asked her to pick up some green tea for us because I mentioned that I wanted some , in a joking matter, but he had to bring me back some anyways. I thought that was sweet of him!!

We got some good news about Michaels job in Denmark. He will be required to work the typical Danish work week of 37 hours a week, and he will be given the full Danish vacation time which is.... 6 weeks of vacation a year!! 2 of those weeks he will have to take all at once during the summer for "Summer Holiday". I think he can get use to that!

Our car has become a great big pain. There is a small crack in the radiator and so it has a slow leak. If not filled with water, it overheats, so it has become unreliable and with everything we have going on in the next several weeks, we can't deal with that. We took it for an appraisal to Carmax yesterday and were happy with the results. With what they quoted we will be able to make enough money off of it to pay off what we still owe and have enough for a rental car for a month (TI will pay for a rental the last 2 weeks we are here) including the cost of the gas for it as well. We are actually picking up a rental car tonight to get us to the airport tomorrow so that we can get a rental car from the airport when we return from Lubbock.

Michael is booking our tickets for our house hunting trip today. Looks like we will be going next weekend...The next several weeks are going to fly by. That is slightly scary, but exciting...Did I mention scary???

Here We Gooooooo...

Things are happening QUICK here. Did I say quick? I meant, things have accelrated into a rapid, swift hurried and speedy whirlpool of craziness. Yup, that sounds more accurate. Michael got his contract on Friday and it all looks really good, now they are just nogotiating the nitty grittys of it. We were pleased to see that TI will pay up to 10,000 USD a person for a year of language classes. We had thought we would probably end up taking the free group classes, but with a budget of 20,000 dollars we will be able to take advantage of having someone work with us both, one on one. The intesity of the classes with be much greater, which will hopefully help us grasp Danish much faster. Between the two of us we can read pretty well. We speak what we call, "Bad Danish" meaning, we can understand each other, but no one else can, and we can pick up stuff listening to Danish, but not everything. I think the focus will probably start with pronounciation. The Danish language is very gutteral. They speak fromt he back of thier throats and it's really difficult to do. We have always joked that at birth a watermelon is shoved down the babies throat so that they can speak their language. Here is some Danish to listen to. This is the Crown Prince of Denmark Speaking here:



Enough about the Language. If all works out we should be heading to Denmark in about a week and a half for our house hunting trip. The relocation service over there is already finding places for us. They were THRILLED to know we had lived their previously because we would be so familiar with everything and that our paperwork would be a much faster process because we alaredy have our Danish Social Security Numbers. When we go in a week, they will help us set up our bank account over there (Again, easy because we have already banked with the bank we will be using again), the relocation company will have all our ulitities set up and ready to go for us by the time we get there, and they will also provide us with professional tax support for a year. We have the movers coming next week so they can estimate the amount of space they need to move us. This move will be EASY and exacly like our one from Lubbock to here. They will come and pack our stuff (Because if we do it, they can't insure it) and they will move it all. We have 1,000 pounds a person to ship air fraight and 10,000 pounds a person to ship by sea.The best part? We will never see a bill!

We have alredy started saying goodbye to people. last weekend it was Michaels dad and Rhonda and next weekend it will be all our family in Lubbock.We will head to El Paso over thanksgiving to say bye to our family there and then come back to Dallas to say bye to everyone here, then we are off. As of now, it is looking like we will be leaving Dallas on November 29th or 30th.

My daily routine is currently in limbo and I really don't have much to do, not even around the house. Michael told me to just enjoy the next week or two of nothing to do, because after that, I'm going to be busier then I can imagine, so, I'll take his advice :)

My Thursday

Whew, it's been a long busy and slightly emotional day. Michael went off to work and I went to help out Chris (Tai Chi Instructor) at the State Fair. We worked the Arthritis Foundation Booth. It has been pretty interesting to spend some time both at the Fair and the Women's Expo a few weeks ago with Chris and listen to him talk to people about Arthritis and Tai Chi. I'll be helping him out next Thursday and the following Thursday as well. Then it was back to his house for coffee before I had to drag myself to the gym for what we call, "Crazy Caseys Calisthenics Program" I mentioned before that we are doing a conditioning class. We started out just helping one of the trainers develop the program, but it has since turned into a weekly thing for us and while I dread going, I feel WONDERFUL after its all said and done. Even though we are hot and sweaty and sticky and tired, afterwards. The strangest part for me is that I have ALWAYS sucked at running, at least in my adult life. If Michael and I were to go running, I would have usually lasted all of about.... 3 minutes before I was out cold. But I've been getting better and better every week (and outlasting the guys in the class!! EVEN MICHAEL) Honestly I believe it is the Tai Chi that has helped me so much. Between learning to breathe better and the stregth in my legs it has created. ok, enough on that...

onto the emotion level of the day...

Not incredibly emotional, but emotional none the less. The day started with car problems which I later learned that it has a crack in our radiator.. horray, just what we needed. After the gym we were talking and realizing how little time we have here. 8 weeks! We have SOOO much to do SOOO many places to go and SOOO many people to see, and SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO little time to do it all. Thankfully we already had a trip to Lubbock planned and booked when we found out. We are hitting El Paso for Thanksgiving, and going to Austin this weekend to say bye to Micahels dad and Rhonda. On another note, at some random point in my life, I became very "cleanish" minded. Who would have thought?? Basically I have gotten to the point where things have to be straightened and clean or it irks me (only in our own home, other peoples houses don't bother me) As you remember, we were here all of 18 days, before we found out we were moving to Denmark and I can't finish unpacking, I can't repack (movers have to do it so our stuff will be insured), I can't set this place up to where I would like to have it. I suppose I could, but I don't want to waste the time to do it for the short time we are here. So that's irritating me as well. While I do have most stuff unpacked, there isn't a place for all of it. I have piles of stuff and my pantry is a mess.... *sigh* I know I know, no one feels sorry for us because "poor us, we have to move to Europe"

Michaels Chip

Today there was an official press release from Texas Instruments about 2 of the chips Michael was working on. One of them he had a big part of and the other he was lead designer on. He was excited to see an article on Yahoo about it. While the article can be VERY confusing to read, I'm posting the link anyways. He has been working on both of these basically since he started at TI.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/061002/dam008.html?.v=72

Good Game Weekend!!!

Yesterday was a busy busy, but really fun day. My Tai Chi instructors (Chris and Fayne) had invited us to a Dallas Stars Hockey game with their cub scout pack and to their sons birthday party right before. So we went! I was glad to spend some time with them and Michael together. Chris and Fayne have both become a really big and important part of my life in the past 9 months and Michael has only spent probably 15 minutes total with them since January, so it was nice for me to have them all together :) While we were there I had my mom texting me updates on the Texas Tech / A&M game (thanks mom!) Tech won at A&M... VERY NICE :)

The Stars game was fun too. It was our first hockey game (pro or minor league) and it was a GREAT first game to go to. Took us a bit to get into it and figure it all out but we did. The last period was really exciting and the game went into overtime with the stars winning literally at the last second.

After the game we went back to Chris and Faynes and had some beer and wine and talked a bit more. We stayed out later then I think we have since... New Years Eve! We left their place at 1:00am!! That is completely not like us!!

Today has been much lazier, it consitited of doing nothing and going to the gym. Things are starting to catch up with us about moving back to Denmark. We have realized we have been getting a really good network set up here in Dallas mostly from TI. Both work and the gym. That will be hard to leave behind because it took us so long to set up. Oh well, it has something we have become extreamly familiar with. We were talking and we realized for so many years we were both solid and stable in our lives in terms of being in one place. (El Paso growing up for me, and Lubbock for Michael) and we had so many people that just floated into and back out of our lives for so many years. Now it seems we are the ones floating around. I dont know which I like better.